Raid setups in detail

[Wanderingman1]

Hello all,
New build here and a request for advice from experienced builders. My start -
Storm Trooper case
8Z68 v pro gen 3 with i7 2700 @ 3.5 (soon to be oc'd to 5+-)
16GB Crucial ballistic
2 X 128 GB Crucial SSD M4
2 TB 7200rpm HDD Hitachi
HIS 7950 GPU (soon to be oc'd to?)
BD Writer LG
Bdrom - dvd writer LG
ocz zx 1000 PSU
Fri Ock CPU cooler
Question - can I raid the 2 ssd's as a raid 1 for os and all programs(on sata 6Gbs), then partition the HDD(on sata 3Gbs) to have 2 matching size segments for raid 0 for backup? Would this even work, providing the benifits of the speed of stripping as well as the security of backup in event of failure? Ideas/suggestions would be very much welcome and appreciated!

 

[mikeangs2004]

TRIM does not support RAID, so your SSD's will die quicker. So only RAID the HDD's. Raid 0 is not for backup. Only identical drives can serve as a Backup RAID array for each other only.

As something unrelated, there is no need to RAID backup drives if you store the image on different HDD's, one of which could be an external backup drive.

 

[Dereck47]

TRIM does not support RAID, so your SSD's will die quicker.

Sorry, that’s incorrect.
While it’s true that TRIM does not work in a RAID array, there’s nothing about having drives in RAID (any RAID) that will cause them to die quicker. It’s just the odds of drive failure increase.
Also, idle Garbage Collection is used in SSDs in RAID to maintain drive performance.

Only identical drives can serve as a Backup RAID array for each other only.

This is incorrect also. You can RAID any type drives, but a RAID array’s performance is based upon the drive with the lowest capacity and slowest read/Write speeds.
So yes, it’s best to RAID drives with identical specs, but you don't have to.

You could RAID-0 a 60GB drive and a 120GB drive and it would work, but instead of having 180GB of capacity (60 + 120), you would only have 120GB (60 x 2). You would waste 60GB of capacity.

You could RAID-0 a 60GB HDD and a 60GB SSD and you would not lose any capacity but your Read/Write speeds would be based upon the HDD, which would be a total waste of the SSD’s capability.

 

[jimpz]

I Believe he's asking to create a raid on a(1) 2 TB HDD. If so you can not create a raid on one HDD. I don't believe ANY hardware or software will even let you attempt it, but a raid ) is performance raid & as it's on 1 drive, it can't perform simultaneous read/writes. Raid ) provides NO backup, it uses 2 (or more) drives for performance gains only.

 

[mikeangs2004]

Hi, I have a question. Can you restore an image to a different drive instead of the of the original system drive using Windows Backup and Restore?

 

[Wanderingman1]

Hi
Thanks for the detail in your response, as well as the corrections to previous response.
A buddy used 4 identical ssd's for raid0 and raid1 and now has way better performance as well as some level of redundancy for failure protection.
If I understand correctly from the discussions, to raid my 2 ssd's for os, and then mirror of both ssd's on a partitioned portion of hdd would effectivley result in same level of redundancy. The only real issue would be to take the time to mirror the ssd's manually.
I am new to raid setups, as well as oc'ing, and appreciate the input from this forum!
Regards all!

Sorry, that’s incorrect.
While it’s true that TRIM does not work in a RAID array, there’s nothing about having drives in RAID (any RAID) that will cause them to die quicker. It’s just the odds of drive failure increase.
Also, idle Garbage Collection is used in SSDs in RAID to maintain drive performance.




This is incorrect also. You can RAID any type drives, but a RAID array’s performance is based upon the drive with the lowest capacity and slowest read/Write speeds.
So yes, it’s best to RAID drives with identical specs, but you don't have to.

You could RAID-0 a 60GB drive and a 120GB drive and it would work, but instead of having 180GB of capacity (60 + 120), you would only have 120GB (60 x 2). You would waste 60GB of capacity.

You could RAID-0 a 60GB HDD and a 60GB SSD and you would not lose any capacity but your Read/Write speeds would be based upon the HDD, which would be a total waste of the SSD’s capability.

 

[Wanderingman1]

Best answer selected by Wanderingman1.